Box Office Bombshell

City officials are looking to revise the strategy for protecting buildings of historical significance, including a fresh look at the list of properties worth preserving.

When Palo Alto approved last fall a program that allows developers to build affordable housing on downtown parking lots, city leaders weren't sure whether anyone would take them up on the offer.

Lenka Wright, a former broadcast journalist turned communications director for Mountain View, is eyeing the District 10 San Jose City Council seat to represent the Almaden and Santa Teresa area.

On July 10, James Williams was sworn in to oversee Santa Clara County’s 23,000 employees and a $11.3 billion budget at a time when the county is facing fiscal uncertainty with a growing deficit that could balloon to $158 million by the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

Chuck Frowein sold his Grillin & Chillin Roadhouse on San Juan Hollister Road. Now he’ll focus on his Alehouse at 401 McCray St., and expand the menu, including a much larger selection of tacos.

The Michelin Guide International had the annual reveal of its coveted stars for fine dining, and California held its reputation as a culinary mecca, keeping all six of the state’s three-star restaurants and all 12 two-star restaurants.

A developer looking to invoke the “builder’s remedy” rule to build a residential complex and a hotel at the Creekside Inn site in Barron Park hit a roadblock when the city deemed its application incomplete.

A Maryland-based legal group is suing the Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District to obtain records related to its ethnic studies program.

Santa Clara’s Planning Commission has recommended that the City Council approve a development project that would reshape the city’s downtown area. The mixed-use development will have retail on the first floor and 50 condos above plus three single-family homes and four townhomes.

San Jose’s gun liability insurance requirement—upheld by a federal court judge last week—will make the city safer from the firearm-related violence, proponents say. But nearly eight months after the ordinance went into effect, no residents have been cited.

San Francisco has become the prime example of what downtowns shouldn’t look like: vacant, crime-ridden and in various stages of decay. But in truth, it’s just one of many cities across the U.S. whose downtowns are reckoning with a post-pandemic wake-up call.

Terry Christensen, host and executive producer of Valley Politics, retired in May after eight years leading the show on CreaTV San Jose. He's been an expert on local politics and public policy for decades.

Luis Yauri Oyola hopes one day to buy a tractor to start a business in Peru; he estimates that he is six years away from that goal, for which he will have spent more than a decade of his life living thousands of miles away from his family. He is on call 24/7 and doesn’t leave the job site except for necessities.

The lack of enough places for everyone to live has sent coastal rent prices inland, removing large swaths of previously cheaper rental units.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will spend $4.5 million on free legal services for undocumented workers involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations. The lawyers can help with their immigration cases.